Friday, July 21, 2006

A suggestion for our new banners

Re the explanation below, here is... 
From: Martin
Date: 21-Jul-2006 14:31
Subject: Re: Meeting to discuss banner changes
To: David P.
Cc: Geoff E.


Hi David,

I've been thinking about how to modify our banners to make the BCIM
web pages fit the new corporate look. I'm anxious to keep the amount
of work we will have to do manageable. We have a LOT of web pages as
you know, and also a number of semi-independent sub-websites.

I would suggest that the University should consider adopting an
approach similar to the BBC's approach - which I've also noticed in
other university websites - which involves having a relatively narrow,
standardised corporate strip at the top of each page banner, with
everything underneath it being controlled locally. I've created two
mock-ups for you to look at - please see the attachments. One shows
what the BCIM home page might look like with what I've described, and
the other shows what a typical BCIM sub-website might look like.

Please note that...

(1) I will redesign our banners to incorporate the two-line version of
the LSBU logo, rather than the three-line logo, as we discussed.

(2) I am happy to change the colour scheme we are using, as discussed,
so that our pages look more consistent with other parts of the
University website.

(3) I am also happy (kind of!) to change the font style throughout our
websites to those defined within the corporate style sheet, as we
discussed.

(4) Our web pages don't have any left-hand sub-navigation blocks, and
I would very much like to keep it that way please! The less clutter
the better, in my opinion.

If the changes we are required to make are minimal then we stand a
chance of getting all of the BCIM web pages to conform within a
reasonable timescale. If the requirements are too onerous then the
timescale will lengthen accordingly, and the task may not even be
manageable with our current resourcing levels.

What do you think?

I'm copying this to Geoff in case he wants to add anything.

Martin.
 
Note (added 7/1/07)
I've just come across this article - Is left-hand navigation evil? - which makes me feel even more sceptical about left-hand sub-navigation blocks - see point (4) above.